Wednesday, February 1, 2012

“Biosafety is not the intent of this new government policy. It will
only facilitate the entry of more genetically-modified organisms (GMOS)
into the country. This is bio-entry, not biosafety.” – RESIST!
Agrochemical TNCs Network
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com
Scientists and agrarian reform advocates held a picket in front of
the Department of Agriculture (DA) recently to underscore their
opposition to the Aquino administration’s commitment to the entry of
genetically-modified organisms (GMOS) into the country.

The picket was specifically directed against the on-going
consultation being held by the National Commission on Biosafety in the
Philippines (NCBP) for the Manual on Biosafety Decision Making Process,
which details the processes and forms for a proposed GMO to be studied,
tested and eventually commercialized in the country.

“Biosafety is not the intent of this new government policy. It will
only facilitate the entry of more genetically-modified organisms (GMOS)
into the country. This is bio-entry, not biosafety,” said RESIST!
Agrochemical TNCs Network, which led the action.

Biosafety, according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is “the
prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on
ecology and human health.”

The group, composed of farmers, scientists, environmental activists,
health professionals and development workers asserted that the
consultation was a way to hasten the institutionalization of a policy
that would make it easier for GMOs to enter the country, without a
comprehensive safety, environmental impact and socio-economic impact
study.

“The health of the people and the environment is at stake in this
issue. As long as proponents have not answered safety and environmental
issues raised against GMOs, these should not be allowed in the
Philippines,” said Dr. Chito Medina, RESIST Co-convenor and National
Coordinator of Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura
(MASIPAG).

“Also, without socio-economic studies that support the feasibility of
these GMOs to help uplift the conditions of farmers, the need for these
GM crops should be questioned. MASIPAG farmers maintain that
traditional varieties of crops can sustain the livelihood of small
farmers. There is no need for these GMOs,” he said.

Wilfredo Marbella, deputy secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP) and also a Convener of RESIST, said the proposed policy
which allows for GMO proponents to withhold significant information
relevant to the proposed project in the guise of confidential business
information, creates favorable conditions for the massive entry of GMO
and GM products in the country.

“Ultimately, farmers will suffer from the negative effects of this
policy, and these are myriad. While the government allows for the smooth
entry of these GMOs, farmers will continue to suffer from higher cost
of farm inputs, displacement due to land and crop conversions, and food
insecurity”, he stressed. “Government policies that directly affect
farmers should foremost consider farmers’ rights to land and
agricultural resources. Opening the country to GMOs undermines these
rights.”.... MORE

By Ninez Cacho-Olivares 02/01/2012
The
prosecution, through one of its spokesmen, Rep. Miro Quimbo, said in an
interview that the prosecution will wrap up its charge on Article 2,
which has to do with the charge of failure of Chief Justice Renato
Corona to disclose his SALn, and proceed with Article 3, which alleges
that Corona “committed culpable violations of the Constitution and
betrayed the public trust by failing to meet and observe the stringent
standards under Article VIII, Section 7 (3) of the Constitution that
provides that “(a) member of the judiciary must be a person of proven
competence, integrity, probity and independence.”

But what makes
the prosecution think that it can just wrap up Article 2 and slide into
Article 3, which is a different article, by next week?

When the
prosecution says that it is done with its first charge, or has rested,
as court language says, it is usually the turn of the defense to
disprove that which the prosecution claims it has proved..... MORE

A major diplomatic battle over the fate of Syria has begun at the
United Nations, with Russia and China the only permanent Security
Council members challenging the UN's right to ‘meddle’ in sovereign
states’ internal problems.

Proponents of the West-sponsored draft resolution are calling for
Syria’s President Bashar Assad to step down, the release of all
prisoners and the withdrawal of troops from Syrian cities, among other
things..... MORE

Two ships of the US Navy, the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the
destroyer USS Momsen have passed through the Suez Canal into the Red
Sea. Although their destination is confidential, they are now getting
dangerously close to the Persian Gulf.

­The ships’ passage was a major operation for the Suez administration
as due to safety reasons they had to close off the canal to all other
traffic and even shut down the bridge, disrupting the link between the
banks for some four hours. The traffic on the roadways alongside the
canal was also restricted, Interfax news agency reports..... MORE

Those drone attacks, carried out by unmanned aircraft controlled
thousands of miles away, don’t do a lot of harm, said the president.
According to Obama, drones had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties” and he added that it’s "important for everybody to understand that this thing is kept on a very tight leash.”

How
small is that not-so huge number? If you ask anyone outside of the
American intelligence community, they’ll tell you it is in the hundreds..... MORE

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIOBulatlat.com
Environmental groups in Batangas are crying foul against dramatic
actor and Batangas Provincial Board member Christopher de Leon ’s
alleged support for mining operations in the region.

Saying that the recent tragedy of Typhoon ‘Sendong’ remains fresh in
the minds of many, the Bukluran Para sa Inang Kalikasan (BUKAL) is
appalled over how the local government has already approved and endorsed
the operations of destructive large-scale mining in the province.

Bukal officials said they received a letter from the office of
Governor Vilma Santos-Recto inviting its members to a meeting to discuss
mining in Batangas. Earlier on, the group came upon a report released
by CrazyHorse Limited, a Canadian Mining firm venturing in
Gold-Exploration Project in Taysan, claiming that the firm has already
secured the endorsement and approval from the Provincial Board. The
endorsement, the company said, was settled May 11, 2011 through the
passage of Provincial Board Resolution no. 253.

It was only on January 24 this year, however, that Bukal formally
acquired copy of the resolution. The group was particularly dismayed to
discover that despite the many dialogues it held with different
institutions, churches, schools and communities and alongside officials
of the local government, the controversial resolution was still passed.

De Leon, who stands as the head of the Provincial Environment
Committee, is now seen as the main proponent of the resolution allowing
large-scale mining in Batangas.

“We are disappointed with de Leon’s hypocritical stand toward
protecting the environment. During a Church-Leaders Forum Dialogue in
March 3, 2011 where he was represented by his Chief-of-Staff, de Leon
all but made a commitment to include Bukal’s call for a mining
moratorium in the draft of the Provincial Environment Code. A month
before this, we had also raised our concerns against large-scale mining
in Batangas to de Leon himself, said the group’s lead convenor Fr.
Oliver Castor.

Castor said it is now crucial that the people of Batangas know that
the actor turned politician is the official primarily responsible for
allowing large-scale mining operations in Batangas. He and all the other
members of the provincial board unanimously supported the said
resolution and betrayed their constituents by ignoring the clamor to
save Batangas from environmental destruction,” he said.

Aside from De Leon, Bukal also named board members Carlos Bolilia
and Rowena Sombrano-Africa as traitors to the public interest..... MORE

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO and MICHAEL CRUZBulatlat.com
BORACAY ISLAND, Aklan — Along the busy stretch of restaurants, bars
and shops of Boracay Island’s world famous white beach, Norberto Marcelo
and his family sat together, huddled as if they were planning a game
strategy.

Norberto and his family are Atis, an indigenous peoples group who
served as Boracay’s first dwellers. They were, however, pushed farther
into the fringes of the island when its white beach, and eventually
almost all parts of the island, was developed into a tourist
destination, which is well-known internationally.

Norberto makes a living as a fisherman. His daily catch, which would
normally amount to $2.3, is just enough to buy rice for his family.
Meanwhile, Potenciana, his wife, grows vegetables in their backyard.
Their income hardly suffice for their needs.

“We eat only once a day, usually around 10 a.m.,” Norberto said. When
asked if they do not get hungry in the middle of the day, “Sometimes.
But what can we do? Life is difficult.”

The situation has forced them to ask for alms on the streets of
Boracay, like other families of Ati who would flock the tourist spot
after a day of hard work. Their conditions paint an irony to what most
people would call tourism and development.

Boracay before tourists arrived

Norberto and his family sitting along Boracay’s white beach(Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

According to articles found online, Boracay was “discovered” by Sofia
Gonzales Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol in the late
1800s and they eventually took ownership of some parts of the island.

Norberto, who then lived in the village of Bulabog, regularly visited
the white beach during his younger years. He described it as “full of
thorns” and the “shores had capiz shells.”

“The sand was so white. You would not be able to stand looking at it
because it is so bright, especially around noon time. It sparkles,”
Norberto told Bulatlat.com, when asked how Boracay looked back then. “It
was then definitely cleaner,” he adds.

Slowly, as tourists started to flock the island, Norberto said, he
witnessed how the Boracay changed. Their lives, too, have changed. Many
atis were displaced from their homes to give way to the establishments
that were being constructed, like hotels and shops. Even Norberto and
his family were not spared. In fact, the small parcel of land they call
home is owned by the Tirol family.

“So far, they are not asking our family to leave. Maybe they took
pity on us. For the meantime, we are cultivating the land so we can
live,” Norberto said.

No job opportunities for Ati

As restaurants and shops started to spring along the stretch of the
white beach, Norberto said, he and other Atis did not benefit from it.

“We were not able to finish our schooling so we could not land a
stable job in any of the establishments,” Norberto said. If they are
lucky, the atis are sometimes hired as construction workers for new
restaurants or when they are doing renovations..... MORE

The
government will offer voluntary repatriation for Filipino workers in
Iraq after it raised the security alert level on the country due to the
recent breakout of incidences of violence, the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.

Foreign Affairs Secretary
Albert del Rosario, who concluded his official visit to Iraq on January
29, had conveyed this to his counterpart, Foreign Ministe Hoshyar
Zebari, at a meeting in Baghdad over the weekend but did not say when
the new policy will be implemented.

“We discussed the security
situation in Iraq in light of the recent bombings in Baghdad, after the
withdrawal of the US military,” Del Rosario said in a statement..... MORE

He
may have been the prosecution’s witness, but his testimony proved
damaging to the case of the prosecution, on the Megaworld (Megaworld)
properties bought by Chief Justice Renato Corona, which the prosecution
earlier had claimed was a huge 40 percent discount given to the CJ, as a
“gift” which the prosecutors tried to connect to Article 3, and prove
that the CJ was unfit for the high position in the judiciary.

It
even came to the point where the private prosecutor was impeaching his
own witness, with Presiding Judge Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile
cautioning and lecturing the prosecution on its move to impeaching its
witness.

Exasperation of senator-judges on the manner of
presentation and how the prosecution panel has been trying to prove its
case against the CJ is starting to show..... MORE

The
farm worker alliance Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda
Luisita filed their comment on the HLI’s motion for clarification and
reconsideration yesterday asking the Supreme Court (SC) to end the cause
of delay for the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to its farm workers
beneficiaries.

“The court must end the Cojuanco-Aquino’s legal
escapade, it’s obvious that they are delaying the process of
distribution” said Rodel Mesa, UMA secretary general.

In a 29-page
comment/opposition to the motion to clarify and reconsider resolution
of Nov. 22, 2011; Ambala that “there is no new matter that came out of
Nov. 22, 2011 decision but the discarding of the mandatory option to
choose given to the FWB’s.”.... MORE

Filipino
workers in Spain have joined calls to stop the closure of Philippine
diplomatic missions this year as they decried the government’s plan to
cease the operation of the country’s three-year-old consulate in
Barcelona.

The protests came amid the government’s decision to
scale down its diplomatic operations abroad and start the gradual shut
down of 12 embassies and consulates as part of its restructuring plan
and austerity measures.

Apart from Barcelona, the 11 other posts
to be closed down, according to the Tribune sources are the Philippine
consulate in Frankfurt, Germany and the Philippine embassies in Sweden,
Norway, Finland, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland,
Venezuela and Palau..... MORE

By Pat C. Santos 02/01/2012
Pestered by
numerous complaints from the parents, the curfew ordinance which
prohibits minors from loitering the streets of Manila from 10 p.m. to 4
a.m. will be implemented even more strictly during the school break.

Manila
Mayor Alfredo Lim directed chief of staff and media bureau director Ric
de Guzman to make the necessary coordination with all concerned
government units to ensure that the prohibition is enforced to the
letter.

With the students going on vacation a few months from now,
Lim noted that the school children will all the more have spare time to
hang out at night and thus expose themselves to unscrupulous
individuals engaging in illegal activities and petty crimes..... MORE

02/01/2012
Metropolitan Manila
Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman FrancisTolentino has asked an
award-winning team of young inventors to build a robot traffic enforcer
that could detect traffic violators without human intervention.

The
high school team from Dr. Yanga’s Colleges Inc. (DYCI) in Bocaue,
Bulacan was honored during the Authority’s Monday morning flag ceremony.
Their award-winning invention, a robot named Magis, can detect floods,
body temperature and blood pressure, among other things. It was
exhibited to MMDA officers and staff. The robot had garnered for the
team a fourth place award in the annual World Robot Olympiad held
recently in Abu Dhabi..... MORE